Elsewhere, a Hospice is a place,
but in the U.S., the care that
helps the suffering, that relieves
pain, anxiety, and fear, but
may not cure, or halt the disease
process, can take place at home, or
in the hospital.
The good nurse
came and told us that our Mother
could not help but become much worse:
palliative treatment and care
was prescribed. We cried, but saw hands
soft and gentle, clean and kind,
to help her to the other side.

[My parents, Bob & Char, are deceased. Dad died within a week of heart surgery at 82. Mom was debilitated by diabetes and other ailments and needed nursing home care her last years, and Hospice care here last months, dying at almost 91. This verse recalls that experience of a few years ago.]
— with Todd Riley Shoemaker.